Je suis une vraie gourmande (Brousse Willis!)

 Well it’s been one heaven of a Christmas! I’ll start with the photos:

 We took the boat across the Loire River to visit a friend of Anna. It’s just like taking the bus or the tram –all we had to do was show our travel cards and get on! In the background of the sixth photo (on the way back) you can see little red and green dots, which are actually rings of light which represent the chains of slavery, as a monument to the freeing of the African slaves (because Nantes, being on the Loire River, used to be the slave capital of France), which is pretty cool.

 Brousse Willis! In French, you pronounce their last name and mine the same as you say Bruce Willis, so me and Anna are team Brousse Willis. For Christmas I made her a jewellery box by cutting a square out of the pages of an old book, and bought chocolates at the Christmas Market with the letters BROUSSE WILLIS on them and put them in the box!

 The fourth photo is Anna, Priscilla and Quentin, all friends from Anna’s youth group. This photo is actually quite important because we were outside for a while and although it’s not very cold here, I caught a cold that day, so I fitted in perfectly with most of the rest of the family, who were sick as well (the joys of a Winter Christmas!)

 The sixth photo is Roland, the Grandad who stays at the house for Christmas. It’s hilarious how he smokes his cigars inside the house (very French). I don’t really understand anything he says though!

The next photo is Odile, the mother who is super- (although the French would say hyper-!) lovely and a great seamstress. Her work, which I go to Friday afternoons, involves sewing too (I included a picture in a previous post). Women who can't otherwise find work sew things to sell. One Friday they were making diary covers with cool fabric and buttons and I chose one I liked -Odile surprised me and gave it to me for Christmas! She has been super-busy leading up to Christmas, preparing the meals for all of us, including the two older daughters Marion and Claire and their husbands, who just add to the fun, and sewing us all Christmas presents. They all wear very interesting, colourful clothes (perfect, right?) and all the females wear each other’s clothes and jewelery pretty much as we please. Odile made me a cool poncho with snowflakes on it to remind me of my Winter Christmas.
Everyone in this family laughs lots (I think it's very French!) but Odile laughs the most. There are lots more words for the different types of laughter in French than there are in English -I think that in itself says something! Fou rire means to laugh without being able to stop, and Odile does this lots!
We watched a video from someone's birthday (it was in Summer -very different - which makes me want to visit again in Summer!) where they had had a concours (competition) for the meal where everyone had prepared a different apperetif (appetizer, normally in delicate little glasses like shot glasses with miniature spoons) and Benoit had made one in normal size glasses, with cold porridge and munched cucumber, and it had been disgusting! Watching them all laughing was hilarious, and set everyone off again! I'm definitely still the stupid exchange student (!) so I'm not sure if it's just with me, but the same jokes tend to get brought up again and again!

We've eaten lots of long and elaborate meals (seven hours on Christmas Eve long enough for you?!) but there's still not the same feeling of not wanting to eat for another year that you get in NZ -at least not for me, anyway!! (The magic of French food..) On Christmas Eve we skyped my family at home when they were eating the Christmas meal (midnight for us and midday in NZ) and we hadn't even got onto the dessert yet! It was fab -we each did a course and dessert was gorgeously presented homemade choux pastries with a caramel and chocolate fountain, and vanilla bean ice cream.
Marion and David, who arrived last, also brought a massive crate of pates, confits, nuts and the ultimate dish of Christmas for the French, which we had with onion jam (but you can also have it with fig jam) and gingerbread: Foie Gras. They also brought a ginormous loaf of bread for eating with the other things.
We decorate the table for Christmas, and play games and do sketches in between the courses. As you can probably tell, the Brousses are very dramatic, and it's quite a sight when all of them, plus their exuberant other halves, are all together under one roof! Here Anna and me are making roses out of serviettes.

 This is a picture during our Christmas meal (which started at 4pm, like most of our lunches, by the way!) which is mostly for my family to see a bit more of the house. The children had made a poem for Odile, and they stood in a line with their backs to us and turned around one by one and read a line (not at all out of the ordinary in this house, little performances like this!)

For the Christmas meal we had a chapon (like a giant rooster) which was great, until Nicholas took the head (which had been left on, with beak, feathers, eyes and all) and started waving it around, then picking it apart to find the soft bits of meat!

 Just another moment of dancing..

And music.. (I gave them a CD of NZ music and it is radical listening to all my favourite NZ artists while eating and playing games together in French!) And there's still the odd moment when I have been blogging, or skyping someone in English, and then I randomly will ask someone a question in English!

 This is Shalom (it means Peace in Hebrew). I'm not actually sure if she is their only cat, because there are always the neighbour's cats that seem to live in the kitchen aswell! She eats almost as much as us and we often find her on the bench eating the leftovers, and sometimes even the dinner!

 Boxing Day we went for a walk in the countryside.

 And... yeah.

Me, Claire, Anna, Benoit and Didier.

La fille qui nage..

1. The canteen line
2. Paula and Elodie
3. My leftovers!

So this was kind of a random title.. it's a French in-joke, but I kind of have to tell you now: the Brousses have a cousin or something from South Africa who doesn't speak French but finds the phrase, "La fille qui nage" inexplicably sexy (not entirely sure where he was coming from with that one, but try saying it really fast, and for those of you who're wondering, it means 'the girl who swims')

But speaking of, it really is quite profound how many Prince Charmings I find for myself on the tram everyday -you really should all come and see for yourself!

I thought you finally needed a really good update on food in France, and since yesterday was such a good day for eating, here it is:
Yesterday was my last day of school for the year and it was also the day of the Christmas Meal at the SELF (as in Help Yourself -it's the school canteen). Clemenceau, which is rather a flash school, had a flash menu to match. I took a photo but it was kind of blurry so I thought I'd better copy it out instead.

Menu De Noel
Du Vendredi 16 Decembre


Entree
Assiette de Foie Gras   (As in Pate!)
Saumon Fume             (Smoked Samon)
Coquille Saint Jaques   (The remains of which can be seen in the last photo -shellfish)        
Tarte Fine aux Escargots(Yes -a real life snail pastry!)


Plat
Supreme de Pintade aux Marrons (Marron are chestnuts -they're delicious in cooking!)
Filet de Truite               (This was fish -we've eaten fish here alot!)
Saute de Cerf                 (Cerf is reindeer!!)
Pommes Dauphines              (the yum potato balls in the second photo)
Fusion de Legumes d'Antan     (veggies -gotta love 'em)
Fromage                      (and my favourite: cheese, and there's always crusty rolls)


Dessert
Supreme Capuccino            (Tiramisu!)
Baccara au Caramel           (A kind of caramel tart)
Foret Noire            (Black forest cake, although me and Paula agreed this was average!)
Choco Tresor                (Kind of gourmet coffee cream puffs, covered in chocolate)


...Hungry yet?
Last night we had a North African themed night at the youth group (as in Morocco, Algeria..) which was hilarious because everyone dresses up like arabs, and we had couscous.
That afternoon we had delicious Mille-feuille and coffee gateau at Odile's work -it's like a never-ending feast, but my stomach didn't thank me for all the coffee!
The line for the canteen is huge, but it was particularly slow today because lots of groups were choosing different things (you had to pick an entree, main and dessert each like usual) to try. We did the same and were passing everything across the table.
One afternoon we decided we felt like a gateau from the bakery and so just got one! I had the most amazing rasberry-custard-cream-cheese tart about as big as a cricket ball, all to myself!
Today I'm going to eat 'en ville' with Paula because its her last day before she leaves -I think we'll go to a  creperie. We also made a cake together for our class -it was cinnamon-y and delicious! She said that a lot  of the German girls had problems with their host families, which makes me even more grateful for the great family I get to stay with! I also think that that is a huge advantage of a private exchange..


Life in general is pretty fab (although I'm glad school's over!) Here's an example of what we do in English:


We watched this video by Tim Burton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD8uQzu0IL0, got given the English transcript and then had to translate a passage and make it rhyme. We then got shown the French version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdBf3dlcc84 and could compare our answers. Since we were working in groups it was actually pretty useful for me!


We're studying (mostly Romantic) French Poetry in French at the moment. It actually fascinates me how separated the French and English-speaking worlds are by their languages! Apart from maybe Romeo and Juliet, they have no knowledge of any English poets, playwrights or authors -it's a completely different world! One well known poet is Baudelaire (who you might recognise if you've read a Series of Unfortunate Events; the main characters have his last name) and the books are dedicated to Beatrice, who this poem is for: http://poesie.webnet.fr/lesgrandsclassiques/poemes/charles_baudelaire/la_beatrice.html


There is quite a bit of crossover in the language though, with words that come from English, and vice versa (known as Frenglish!)
One night (very late!) me and Anna watched Lord of the Rings in French on my laptop. There's been a massive storm here and my room is kind of like a little attic so the rain beats very loudly -it's such a nice sound!


The other day I heard Brook Fraser 'Something in the Water' on the radio in a big department store -I felt like dancing!


We made a salad and took it to Priscilla (Anna's friend's) school and snuck into her canteen again to eat. We visited the house nearby again which is for kids from nearby schools to eat and discuss things. It was amazing the atmosphere there! (My nutella crepe wasn't half bad either, although the French insist that nutella isn't very French -that's news to me!) It's just one woman who opens her home like a cafe with full meals, love and interesting and meaningful discussion for only a couple of Euros! It's only Anna's first term so she is quite new to Clemenceau but we found the 'aumonerie' for her school aswell: it's a catholic idea and it would be so cool to have a place like that where people from Sacred Heart and maybe even Bernards could go after school. Here we get lunchtimes off to head into town or go home for lunch, but you could have it for after school at home.


There's the christmas party on Sunday, so I'm looking forward to that... wonder what a French potluck will be like...?


je vous aime

I don't want a lot for Christmas..

Guess what I found - a French Lush!

I had no school today (oh joy!) because of a test and because my German teacher was sick. Me and Paula (my German friend) went shopping instead and brought presents for her family because she's heading home for Christmas in a few days.
We also went up the Lu tower, a factory where they've been making little tea biscuits for again about as long as common grass has grown in NZ. There was a rotating platform that one could manoeuvre oneself with a wheel (like a playground pirate ship for grown ups!) but unfortunately it didn't go very fast :( You could see a full panorama of Nantes though, which was pretty impressive.
I also went grocery shopping with Odile and chose some French things for Lenart (the German exchange student) to take home with him because it's his last day. I think when I go I'm going to take the entire cheese aisle with me.

This evening we had a feast for Lenart. Paula came as well and I'd just like to point out how cute it is when they speak German together. In Anna's words, "C'est deux Allemands, un Allemand et une Allemande, ensemble en France"

The bottom photo is at our neighbour's house. We're pretty close -so close, in fact, I opened a door at the bottom of the stairs I thought was a cupboard and found my self in her kitchen (luckily, the others were there too looking at her christmas decorations!) This christmas tree reminded me of home, so I put it here to wish you guys bonnes fetes!

A +

Il y a deux semaines...

I arrived in France, and I've already done so many amazing things! Anna has lots of lovely friends, and one day last week I went to 3 different colleges -mine, her friend Priscilla's (we made a picnic, borrowed someone else's card and sneaked into their school canteen!) and then Benoit's school in the evening for two (very long!) school council meetings, one having to decide between saturday or wednesday afternoon school -I'm glad I live in NZ, it seems like so much time here is taken up with school already, and I don't even take sciences here! It was an interesting evening, mostly because I had a correspendance (don't worry, it's a French word!) to make between the bus and the tram, which was much more confusing than it appeared, and it was night and raining, and the bus was diverted so the stops didn't have names! I had to ring Anna to find out where I was, and trust me it's much harder speaking French without body language!

The first photo is of my school -isn't it a beauty? It's older than the arrival of white people in NZ, and I really appreciate it after seeing some of the other schools. School is great, if a little crazy to understand! I take Maths, which is insane at times (at the moment we're doing algorithms and they write these huge long sentences using 5 different types of brackets, infinity signs and no numbers!) but the teacher explained a problem to me yesterday and I understood it, so watch this space...! (Paula, my German friend said it's not even that French maths is that much more advanced, it's just more confusing!). I also take German, History, English, Economics and French, but depending on what the topic is I spend a lot of time writing words in my vocab book.

The second photo is of me and Anna before going shopping (I'll have lots more time to blog and do fun things like that ;) when school finishes in a week, and I'm looking forwards to the christmas dinner at the canteen!) -The lipstick I'm wearing was because we had a class photo where we dressed up, and our class theme was Comic Book Heroes -Anna went as the cutest little Milou (Snowy the dog from Tintin) and I went as the Castafiore -we had a whole group of us as Tintin! Check out the album on Facebook -sorry I only just realised it wasn't public until now!

The third photo is a treat I'm still waiting to enjoy, along with the ice skating rink that's about to open -it's right by a big chateau (castle) of which there are many in Nantes, so it seems a bit like Disneyland! I've visited the Christmas market countless numbers of times, including the big fruit and veg market, and the clothing one (although I think I'll have to go second hand to find the dress for your wedding, Becky -all the dresses seem to be made of wool because it's Winter!) 'L'autre Marche' (it's aimed at anti-commercialism) next to the normal marche is pretty cool, but you'd be suprised how up with it (in terms of fashion and craft) NZ is! (I'm looking forward to capes really taking over next Winter though!)

The fourth photo is me with my second best friend in Nantes (next to Nutella -I even found recipe books for Nutella and carambars, a favourite French candy): the tram map. If I do say it myself, for someone who is absolutely terrible at directions (I often sprint for the tram then find I'm on the wrong one!) I'm really getting to know the tram and bus system much better. Anna says my French has improved aswell -it's actually scarier saying a French word to you guys at home because I feel like I should be perfect at French now (but Laura reassured me - you don't get bilingual in two weeks -or two months!)

The final photo is Odile's work, where I went for the first time on Friday -we were making diary covers for yet another Marche de Noel (Christmas Market -that's 4 in total I've been to!); it's an amazing little business!

I really feel like I'm much more fluid with speaking French, even only after 2 weeks. I got asked yesterday whether France was as I expected it to be, and it took a while to answer (not only because of the language!) I think there's much more of a Morroccan influence in the cooking, and there are lots of Arab people around town, which influences the culture -you did tell me that Madame Collard! It's actually quite funny at times thinking that this place I'm getting to know is the place you're from! The Brousses are also very into Africa, which means we eat some very interesting foods. And I have eaten at a creperie already (in Bouffay!) -It was very dignified and sophisticated, just some friends and I (although it took ages trying to choose the cheapest of the twenty creperies in just one street!) and I had crepes du beurre salle) a favourite flavour of mine popular in the region. And although there are lots of patisseries, I haven't actually eaten at many yet -unlike NZ, we eat heaps at home and don't really buy much when we go out, but I'm looking forward to getting breakfast at a patisserie one day before school. I have fallen heartily in love with bread and cheese, which we eat (lots of!) at nearly every meal! I also love brioche (with nutella!) and I love how they call anything sweet (like toast!) a 'tartine' and even biscuits 'gateaux'! Didier went away to a conference for a few days and brought back a cheese that I'm pretty sure was around before Jesus was! It is old and crumbly, tres fort, et tres bon -anyone know if NZ allows you to bring cheese into the country?

will write soon
Joyeux Noel
Harriet

Enfin, en France!

Wow -SO much to tell. I'm in France now and the family I'm staying with are fantastic! Their house is amazingly colorful and eclectic, like an attic (and Anna, the girl I am staying with has a great sense of style -I'm wearing her hat and scarf in the photo above), they are all very creative and dramatic and interested in lots of things, and there are always people being invited to stay and eat -sound familiar? (that's probably why I'm not homesick yet, it's hard to be when I feel so at home!) It's amazing the length of the meals -I'm really enjoying sitting down to eat for at least an hour and half, laughing and talking together, especially now I understand a bit more. 


Language is such a beautiful thing! It was a little weird for me at first, not being able to express myself, and I realised how much of me relies on what I say! It's a good experience for me being the dumb foreigner for once!! To tell you the truth, it's a little weird writing in English when I've been experiencing everything in French and haven't even considered the English word -I'm tempted to put French expressions in frequently. It's tiring speaking French all day (at first with the jet lag I would forget and speak English out of the blue for a second!) but I am already forgetting that I'm surrounded by a foreign language all the time... I'm looking forward to French next year!

Their church is lovely -it's nice and small, and it's really nice having the Bournes there -they make me feel at home and are really nice and especially Laura, who's Anna's best friend, has been very good at speaking French with me! I take the tram to school every morning (it's great the tram system; it goes right down the middle of the street and everyone uses it) -it's usually dark and the photo above is of us waiting at the tram stop.

I take the tram usually four times a day because we go home for lunch, which is nice. The school is very grand and old, and it's lots of fun waiting outside the school before and after (with the -many- smokers!) and talking, and of course there's lots of kissing! At first it seemed a bit hopeless, just listening to the teacher and not understanding much but Lenart, the German exchange student of Benoit, Anna's brother said it definitely gets easier, and so did Paula, a German exchange student who I went to see the Christmas market with one afternoon Anna had a music assessment. She's really nice and it's great because we can speak slow French together!) Anna's English teacher is lovely, but my favourite class suprisingly is German because I can actually understand most things! (I was surprised I could actually translate things from German into French!) To mark the beginning and end of each period, all French schools play music (a kind of fanfare), which I think is a great idea!

I was thinking I would have to buy heaps of new clothes here, but everyone pretty much wears the same things as me (basically, babeing it ;)

We eat at the school canteen twice a week, which is really cool -you scan your canteen ID card on a gate and it lets through a few students at a time, and there are several choices for each course -it's very sophisticated and puts our school canteen to shame!

I have quite a bit of free time (not having any home work) and it's a little odd being so independent, again because I'm used to having so much to do (not just a suitcase full of things!) at home.

Nantes, the city where I am, is very cool -there's billions of delectable bakeries and chocolate shops, and there's a very Moroccan/Arabic influence, so lots of kebab shops. I sometimes forget that I have ages to see everything! I think I will get used to it fast, though -to the French, France isn't a strange country, New Zealand is!

En Angleterre

My sister and her eldest son Noah (this is him in the photo -isn't he a cutie?) made me a lovely sign for when I arrived at their cute English house in the village of Knowle, in Birmingham. Mieke lives close by the most adorable little village. The village is a perfect little community with one of every shop, like an old fashioned sweet shop I visited -they even had RJ's licorice from Levin! And food in England is so cheap -much more so than NZ, even with the conversion. Miekes very kindly kitted me out for the European Winter (see coat above), and we went shopping for stockings and gloves -lots of fun looking at all the English fashions, which are a whole season ahead of ours!

À l'aéroport

Arrived in Brisbane Airport international transfer area -I think it's the silentest place on earth! This massive long white corridor with a handful of dead shops, and every so often you pass a traveler who looks completely lost and/or asleep, wandering along one of the moving walkways. I'm losing track of the number of times I've had to change my watch. On the massive departures board the first flight out is to Wellington (if I run I might just make it!) It's so weird being in another country all alone..

Dubai airport: there is so much luxury -the airport is full of waterfalls and gold! and the shops (place your orders for giant crispy M&Ms below) Found an Aussie guy leaning against one of these pot plants filching the Maccas wireless and decided to do the same -it seems crazy that I can be online when I'm by myself in a different timezone! I'm in the departure lounge now (found out the whole airport has free wireless -DOOF!). Only problem.. I'm finding it hard to type because the internet is in Arabic, backwards goes which...

This is Daniel, my new man who I met on the flight from Brisbane to Dubai. Him and his Mum were going home to Iran for Christmas. Don't be jealous, ladies... 

Je vais en France (Prologue)